It appears the plant’s love of sunshine and hot, tropical conditions hasn’t stopped it thriving despite the poor weather - or maybe it was just striving to get a little closer to some elusive sunshine.

Now the giant specimen is agonisingly short of scooping the world record for the tallest sunflower.

Standing 26ft tall, it is currently just four inches off the world record of 26 ft 4in, set by German Hans-Peter Schiffer in 2009.